


A New Composition

by thegingermidget



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Music, the yuri!!! on ice piece
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 23:58:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8944531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegingermidget/pseuds/thegingermidget
Summary: After not hearing from her friend for months, Emily received an email from Katsuki Yuuri, asking her to compose a new piece.





	

_Hi Emily,_

_It took me forever to work up the courage to send this email, and even now I’m afraid you'll just ignore it. You have every right too! I was kind of a jerk and things ended awkwardly and then I just left…_

_Well, I’m back in Japan now. I don't know if you follow me on social media or anything, but I’m going back to skating. I have a new coach (I don't know if I ever told you about Viktor Nikiforov but you can google him I guess) and I hope to make it to the Grand Prix Final with his help._

_Do you remember when I asked you to write that piece for me a couple of years ago? I was thinking of using it for my free skate program, but I’m not really sure just yet. I don't want to bother you, but if you have time, would you be able to listen to it again? and see if there's anything you would change? I really want this program to be special and the piece you wrote really captured my skating career at the time. Is there anything you would change about it now?_

_I’m sorry this is so out of the blue. I know Phichit talked to you recently but I still feel bad about ignoring you like that._

_Enough about me already haha. How is everything? How is conservatory life? Can you play twelve different instruments yet? Three of them at the same time? Are you on your way to becoming a world famous musician? I wouldn't expect anything less!_

_Yuuri_

Emily had just left the studio when she got the email notification. Detroit was chilly even in early May and she didn't want to take her hands out of her pockets for a silly email. The conservatory sent her an email just about every time someone sneezed on campus.

When she returned to her apartment she saw who it was from and squealed. Yuuri!

Reading the message, she shook her head at her friend. There hadn't been a single point in their months of silence when she’d suspected that he hated her. She knew she had crossed a line at the hospital and that he hated himself for pushing her away.

She wasn't entirely surprised to hear from him. Phichit had told her he was thinking about using the piece last night. She hadn’t expected she would hear from Yuuri so soon.

Twitter and Instagram had been buzzing with news about Viktor moving to Japan to become Yuuri’s coach. A month ago, it had been impossible to check her newsfeed without finding a post about Yuuri’s Stay Close To Me video.

She wondered if Yuuri had any idea of how famous he actually was. He acted as though skating was a hobby he indulged, as though he wasn't one of the top figure skaters in the world.

In the dark of her apartment, she fired up her ancient laptop and sent Yuuri a quick response.

Of course she would write a new piece. It wasn't even a question. She was thrilled to hear from him again and had never been mad at him in the first place. Part of her suspected it had never been about her trying to get too close to him, but the amount of stress he put himself under. Back then, he’d been falling apart at the seams. All of his energy was focused on keeping himself together and to keep everyone else from noticing.

In her email, she offered to set up a time to Skype and Yuuri surprised her again with his lightning fast response. Emily hardly had time to fix her hair before she was alerted to his call.

“Kon'nichiwa, Yuuri! I can’t believe our time zones matched up.”

It was clear that Yuuri had just woken up. His sleep crusted eyes were squinting, but he was too tired to remember to put on his glasses.

“Hi, Emily. Yeah, I just woke up.” He stifled a yawn. “I have to go for a run before practice later. Do you mind if I get ready while we talk?”

“I’ll avert my eyes.” joked Emily, and she laughed when his cheeks turned pink.

“I- I’m already dressed.”

“I’m kidding, Yuuri. Still so serious I see.” Yuuri looked visibly relieved, as though he was waiting for this friendly conversation to all go wrong. “Viktor’s got you working hard?”

“I’ve never trained this hard before. Not just because of Viktor, but I’ve got something to prove now I guess.”

She tried to keep himself from laughing as he realized the screen was so blurry because he wasn’t wearing his glasses.

“I can’t believe you’re training with your idol.”

Yuuri looked surprised. “You looked him up?”

Emily shook her head. “No, I just remember how you never shut up about him. Did he find your posters?”

It was a wonder Yuuri’s face wasn’t permanently red. “No!” he shouted.“And he never will.” he added in a near whisper.

“Like I have the opportunity to fly out there and tell him. I have so much money to spend on plane tickets.”

“Living the college life?”

“More like living the starving artist life. Not everyone gets to go home to a cushy seaside resort with a volcanic hot spring spa.”

“It’s not really as great as all that. And if you don’t have time to work on the piece, I’m sure I can find something else,”

“And miss the opportunity to score Yuuri Katsuki’s free skate program which will go down in history as one of the greatest performances Japan, no the world, no the universe, has ever seen? I should be paying you except I really need that money for my rent.”

Yuuri looked fully awake now and his face went red with laughter. “Well even if I fall on my ass your piece will be famous in a video of ‘Epic Ice Skater Fails’.”

Always so quick with that self-effacing humor. “I listened to the piece again and I think you’re right it doesn’t work for you now.”

“Actually, it was Viktor who suggested I try something else.” he mumbled.

“Well I agree with him, but I also think that I can compose something better. I know you have to go for your run now, but you tell him that I am on it. Ok?”

Yuuri Katsuki had the brightest smile. It’s a shame it is so hard to find. “Ok. I’m glad I emailed you, Emily. It’s great to hear from you again.”

“Likewise. Now get going! You’re not going to win the Grand Prix Final by talking to me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” answered Yuuri with a mock salute and the call ended. Emily wasn’t entirely surprised by the grin on her face. It really was great to see Yuuri again.

After the video call, she was relieved to find that the feelings she had once had for Yuuri had faded into fondness. Emily hadn’t thought it was a huge secret that she had a major crush on the cute Japanese skater boy. Phichit used to make fun of her for it all the time. It was a wonder he never told Yuuri, seeing as they were best friends, but she had told him she would break his legs if he ever breathed a word.

She wasn’t used to seeing Yuuri so happy. It was still a frail, fragile kind of happiness. Yuuri had always been the type not to brag or discuss good news, probably out of fear that it wouldn’t last long and he would end up letting everyone down. His good fortune with Viktor was so new and surprising, he wasn’t ready to let everyone see how happy he was. Emily was able to read him well enough to see that happiness shine through.

During that night, she listened to the piece she’d written a year ago over and over. It was just her on piano, a timid melody picked out note by note that grew into a cascade. The piece wasn’t terrible, but she could do better.

The main theme was fast and trembling, perfect for jumps or a rapid step sequence or so she thought. Listening to it again, it sounded frantic and far too fast. The piece ended with a more open section. The left-hand falls away and the melody is laid bare once again. Emily had been proud of that moment when she had written it and heard it aloud for the first time. It’s the moment where Yuuri realizes he can achieve his dreams, all on his own.

That idea seemed funny now, because as far as anyone knows, it hasn’t happened in real life yet.

She downloaded the piece to her phone and it played in her ears as she made dinner and read a terribly boring theory text for class on Monday. She had all weekend to do the reading, but she knew there was no chance she was going to finish it tonight.

Her cat, Koneko, stared at her from across the room, insulted by the lack of attention being paid to her. Emily stuck her tongue out at the grumpy cat, whom she loved but didn’t always have the patience for. She had hidden that cat her dorm room after finding him on the street. Yuuri had named it for her. ‘Kitten’ sounded pretty exotic in Japanese.

Early on, she decided that the piece had good bones. There was nothing wrong with the melody or the key or the chords. She could work with a decent framework like that. The very beginning and the end were also moments that she was very proud of and didn’t have the heart, or the time or the creativity, to do something like that all over again.

 _There,_ she thought, _almost forty seconds of a two-minute and thirty second song down. I’m nailing this._

Around 10, her phone lit up her pitch black room. She had been dozing in front of her computer screen and jolted awake with the text tone.

It was Hiran, her stand partner in the chamber orchestra at school. They were in the beginner group for students learning strings, but Hiran was nearly a prodigy on the violin with only a few months of practice. It was impossible to be too jealous of him, though, because he was always willing to help others. He had an amazing talent, and it seemed to be his goal in life to help other people climb up to his level.

Sometimes it was really hard knowing so many incredibly talented people.

 _Where r u? I_ havent _heard from u all day_

She sent back a quick response.

_I’ve been busy_

_With what? Schools almost over_

_Some of us have to worry about our end of semester recitals… I was working on a piece for a friend_

_Who?_

_This guy I knew in college. Yuuri Katsuki. He asked me to write a piece for him_

_Romantic…?_

_No, he’s a figure skater, really famous. Anyway, I can’t go out tonight I’m really getting somewhere with this piece_

YO _you should totally write a part for me I’ll play anything._

_:) I’ll keep you posted._

_Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help_

_Can you text me back in like an hour? The scary text noise keeps me from falling asleep_

_>. < _igotcha

Emily shook her head. She made sure to turn on the light in her room before heading back to work. How had it gotten so dark?

Hiran had given her an idea for how to continue the piece, but how would a violin part fit into this? All along she had envisioned this piece as a solo, with Yuuri as the lone piano part. What if this piece was meant to be something else?

It was nearly midnight and she’d lost all momentum. After texting Hiran, the piece just sounded wrong. The parts that she had liked before just didn’t sound the same and she couldn’t figure out how to fix it.

Her phone started to buzz and she was going to ignore it, assuming that it was Hiran reminding her to stay awake like the good friend he was when she realized the noise was different. The buzz was long and persistent, nearly vibrating her phone off the edge of her desk. She was getting a phone call.

Emily grabbed the phone just as it was about to make its suicide jump and looked at the number. It was a foreign number, that much was clear, but it was Yuuri or Phichit and despite how worldly she seemed, she really didn’t know that many people outside of the US.

Normally, she would have ignored phone calls from unknown numbers, but the number had a Japanese format like Yuuri’s. Maybe he was calling her from a different phone?

“Hello?” answered Emily, nervous about strange phone calls in the middle of the night.

“Hi!” said a voice that was far too bright and cheery for Emily who was ready to pass out and go to bed. She took the phone away from her ear and held it at arm’s length.

“Is this Emily? Yuuri’s musical friend? This is Viktor, Yuuri’s coach… Are you still there?” The accented voice realized that no one was responding on the other end, but Emily was too shocked to answer. “Hello…”

“Hi! Yes! Hello, Viktor. This is Emily speaking.”

“Great! I know Yuuri talked to you about composing a new piece.”  
Emily sat up and ran a hand through her messy hair. “Yes! Yes. We’ve emailed back and forth and- and he called me today to talk about it. I was working on it just as you called.”

“Isn’t it the middle of the night over there? I’m never sure about time zones and America is always a weird one…”

“Oh, well…” She was almost embarrassed. “Yeah, it’s almost one in the morning over here, but I was inspired I guess.”

“It would be great if you could have it done in the next day or so. The sooner it’s done, the more time Yuuri will have to practice with it. I need to choreograph a routine so he can start learning a program right away.”

Emily’s blood froze. She hadn’t really thought about a deadline and finishing an entire piece in a day was practically impossible. There was no time. The piece needed to be finished yesterday if she even had a shot of doing a live recording. “Oh! Yeah, of course.”

“But no pressure! I know creativity can’t be rushed and things happen in their own time.” Viktor seemed like the kind of person who said ‘no pressure’ without realizing he meant ‘ _more_ pressure’. Maybe he was just so used to dealing with it himself he had forgotten that the rest of the world was still human. How was this good for Yuuri?

“Believe me, it will be done in plenty of time.”

“Perfecto!” He used Italian completely unironically. “I wanted to ask you about the first piece you composed for Yuuri, as well. How do you go about making that one?”

Emily was shocked by his interest. “Well, I was kind of close to him when he trained in Detroit. I got to know him and Phichit pretty well and followed their skating careers while I knew them... it was kind of impossible not to… and I felt like I composed a piece that really fit his mindset about skating. It’s definitely not perfect…” Suddenly, she felt like she was bragging too much.

“No, it is very, very close to perfect,” interrupted Viktor. “I barely knew him back then, but I’ve seen some of his performances back then and I know him now. It is a decent interpretation of the skater he used to be, which is why we can’t use it now. It’s... “ he seemed to be searching for a word. This was the first time Emily realized that English was probably not his first language. “Fragile… weak. It comes close to representing who Yuuri is as a skater. He doubts himself and is afraid of his own ambition. Somehow you managed to capture that. But Yuuri is not weak. I don’t think he has ever been weak. Do you understand?”

Emily thought of the piece she had composed. That seemed to be the perfect way to describe it. She didn’t mention this to Viktor, but maybe that was why the piece didn’t work. She had known Yuuri at a time where he was struggling and she had looked at him with sympathy. Perhaps that sympathy had bordered too close to pity.

“I do. Yuuri isn’t weak, he’s resilient even when he doubts himself, but… when he tries to do everything on his own… he makes himself weaker. Not weak!” She added, worried that Viktor would try to correct her. She still couldn’t believe she was on the phone with Viktor Nikiforov. “But, not as strong as he could be. He doesn’t realize that his friendships make him who he is. Their love makes him stronger.”

Viktor was silent. She wondered if their service had been disconnected before he answered. “That’s perfect.”

Emily didn’t know what to say.

“I can tell the piece is in very good hands. Yuuri was right to trust you. You have good instincts and are very talented. I can’t wait to hear it.”

“I’ll get right on it!” said Emily, with more energy than she should have had at one in the morning.

After hanging up, she attacked the piece with new enthusiasm. She wasn’t sure exactly where this new inspiration had come from, but she had a feeling the conversation with Viktor had broken her writer’s block.

Just as the sky outside her bedroom window changed from black to blue to purple to pink, she took off her headphones and stared at the computer screen. It was done, for the most part at least. She felt a surge of pride as she scrolled the pages and pages she had composed in the night. Yes, this was it.

The piece that had started out as a piano solo became a duet with a drum set in the background pumping out a heartbeat and moving them along. Emily stuck to her initial instinct to keep the beginning and the end, but they worked now in a way that they hadn’t before. The piano part was still technical. She would need to practice it a few times before she recorded it for real, but it wasn’t too different from the original piece. The violin part was simpler. Hiran would have no trouble playing it and he had agreed to help.

She sent him a text to see if he had free time tomorrow to give it a run through and maybe record. Then she sent a text to Dana to see if she could do the same.

While waiting, she gave her masterpiece a first listen. The program she used could play back everything she put on the page in harsh synthetic approximations of real instruments. It would be different in real life still, but she had to know if what she had heard so clearly in her head had made its way to the page.

The repeating line in the piano part introduced the piece like a heartbeat. Emily could almost breathe in time with its rhythm. It was a riff that sounded like the player was practicing a line over and over again, trying to hit it just right. Beneath that, the left hand pulsed with the chords, the lifeline that tied everything together. All of this building up before the first release. A moment of silence where the ground seems to disappear and everything might fall apart...

Before the piano comes back stronger than before. This was the Yuuri few people get to see. The Yuuri that puts himself out there and revels in success. The Yuuri that wants to win the Grand Prix Final so badly, that he’s willing to do anything. He’s still unsure of himself. He’s fallen down before but he always gets back up and starts practicing again, no matter how much it hurts.

There were points where Emily could swear that the music synchronized perfectly with the rate of her own heartbeat. She almost felt tempted to stop listening and figure out exactly what tempo this was, it could be useful information later, but she kept listening to the piece as it unfurled before her.

This section was building up to the next, and Emily made a mental note to add a cymbal roll to emphasize this transition. This was when Viktor came into Yuuri’s life and things started to change.

The violin was supposed to enter at an incredibly soft dynamic that the computer couldn’t hope to emulate. Emily hoped Hiran would be able to get what she was going for when she’d written the part for him. The violin part played a slow melody, following the chords the piano had set up but playing its own melody entirely. The piano part continued to roll on in its technical passages, but prouder than before. The violin challenges and encourages the piano to match its intensity and joy.

The two parts sing together and Emily wasn’t sure where the inspiration for that came from. Maybe seeing how the each of them spoke about the other, and how Yuuri has never looked so happy.

The drum entered with the violin and its beat is like a ticking clock. It was the clock that told Emily she didn’t have a lot of time to finish this piece and the same clock that pushes Yuuri to make the most of his time with Viktor and his skating career. The beat moves the piece forward, less of the rubato introduction and the freedom in the violin part, but both melodic lines evolve and adapt to the pressure and the stress of time.

The violin part stops playing the long sustained pitches and becomes more staccato and regimented. Viktor is not going to go easy on Yuuri, as Emily could tell from the early morning run before practice. There was no doubt that Yuuri was going to flourish under Viktor’s coaching. He was strong and adaptable and resilient. He just needed confidence. Confidence she hoped Viktor would teach him.

Yuuri had come a long way since he left for Japan. It took months and some encouragement from Viktor for him to even contact her again. He was growing in leaps and bounds, and Emily hoped that he would eventually see that that wasn’t anyone’s doing but his own.

Viktor had been Yuuri’s hero forever, but Emily and the rest of the world had no doubt that Yuuri was a fantastic skater in his own right. He has the potential to make history and surpass his idol, if only he could see it. Together they could make history, but Yuuri needed to believe that he is just as important in making that happen as Viktor.

Then the scene changes again and the piano enters, alone again. It is fragile and sad, but in this piece, it has never been weak. Each note is plucked out tentatively, as though taking its first steps, but each one rings true. The line picks up speed as it goes along, a growing realization that even by himself, he can do amazing things.

The piano part plays the same melody it played beneath the violin, with just as much vibrancy and skill. It is no longer joyful, but present and ready to be heard. After playing the line a few times it transforms into something else, something no less difficult but completely original, based on what came before it. The piano hammers on, confident at last, and only then does the violin come back in.

This time, the two voices play a similar line that is all the more beautiful because both of them are together. This part is going to be hard to put together, but all of the effort will be worth it to get to this climax. Emily can’t hear quite what it will sound like yet, but even the bare bones of it send shivers down her spine.

The piece ends with the repeated riff from the beginning and a fading violin. It isn’t supposed to sound like a practice session anymore, but a testament to all of the hard work that got them this far.

When the piece finished, Emily knew that it was ready. She looked down at her phone to see that Hiran and Dana had answered her.

With a few clicks, she emailed each of them their parts and prayed that they could pull this off.

They would meet at noon to rehearse, and Emily hoped they would be able to record a final product. There wasn’t too much pressure for Hiran and Dana to learn their parts, the hard part for them would be in figuring out how their parts would blend with the piano. Their parts were nowhere near as technically challenging as hers

She tried to tell herself that this would all come together somehow. Her sleep deprived brain was stalling even as she set an alarm on her phone. She didn’t have classes today, so she could afford to spend a few hours catching up on sleep.

Part of her was worried that she’d be so nervous about having her part ready that she would never fall asleep. She was wrong, though, and passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

A few hours of sleep did wonders for her. Emily was still beyond nervous that they weren’t going to be able to do this in one day. Maybe Viktor could give her a little bit more time, but she really didn’t want Yuuri to suffer because she was inadequate.

Emily’s main instrument was piano. The part wasn’t too hard, a few tricks here and there, but mostly she tried to go easy on herself when she was composing it. She had a hard time reigning in her tendency to push her own limits in everything.

It didn’t need to be difficult, it just needed to work.

She spent a few minutes going over the part at the piano in her apartment before Hiran and Dana arrived. The part wasn’t as difficult as she’d anticipated. It was hard, but her sleepy self had managed to write a feasible part that was still intricate and exciting.

Dana arrived first. The apartment wasn’t huge, but they managed to set up a makeshift drum set in Emily’s kitchen. Emily had met Dana this year at the conservatory. The girl was finishing up her studies and applying to orchestras all over the world. Though Dana was older, they bonded during their sight singing classes. Dana had been placed in the class after failing it the year before, and desperately needed it as a requirement for graduation. Singing was not Emily’s strong suit either, but the two of them tried to work together in order to pass the class.

“So what is this for?” asked Dana, while they waited for Hiran to show up. The primadonna could never be trusted to arrive on time.

“A friend of mine is a figure skater in Japan, and he asked me to write a piece for him to skate to in his competitions.”

Dana’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know you had such famous friends. Who is he?”

“Yuuri Katsuki?”

Emily jumped when Dana squealed. The older girl had a low voice and a calm laid back demeanor that was nowhere to be found in this giddy display. “You’re friends with Yuuri!?!”

“We haven’t spoken in months.” Her rebuttal was lost.

“I’m going to perform in the soundtrack to his free skate performance? This is amazing!”

The buzzer rang and Emily didn’t take her disbelieving eyes off of Dana as she left to go let Hiran in. “I’m glad you’re excited. I hope it sounds good.”

“Well, you’re a really talented composer so I know it will sound good,” answered Dana. The percussionist sat down at the kit and put a hand to the red blush that had risen in her cheeks.

Hiran was late, but he was ready to go within minutes. They tuned and set in to begin rehearsal.

Emily started by playing them the composition on the computer. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them to count correctly. She wanted them to understand how all of their parts fit together. The important part was for this to sound like music, and listening to it all come together in a way on the computer gave them a bit of an edge when it came to actually figuring out how to perform this. Then she played her part on the piano.

When she was done, she looked up to see Hiran and Dana staring at her, with wide eyes. Hiran’s mouth was hanging open.

“It’s so different from the computer. I mean, I know the instruments on the program sound like shit but… wow.” said Dana, always able to compose herself in a timely fashion.

“You liked it?”

“It was perfect,” said Hiran. He had a steely look in his eyes that Emily didn’t know how to interpret. “Let’s play it.”

It took several takes. Hiran and Dana played their parts flawlessly, much to their credit, but it took a while to get the dynamics and blend to sound just right. The piece sounded totally different from the awful version the computer produced, and soon it sounded exactly the way she had imagined it, and better.

Now she could picture Yuuri psyching himself up for a competition and landing the first jump in the opening bars. She felt her heart pound when he was alone towards the end.

Hiran grinned and locked eyes with her as they reached the final crescendo together. It all came together somehow.

There was a general consensus when the last take came around. Without a word, they all nodded and knew that they had done their job.

“Thanks for helping me out.” said Emily leaning against the door as Hiran helped load the last cymbal into Dana’s van.

“Anytime,” said Hiran. The sentiment was seconded by Dana yelling something indiscernible from inside the van. It sounded like agreement.

“I’ll send it to him right now and let you know how it goes.”

“They’re going to love it.” said Hiran, bouncing down her steps, violin case in hand.

Emily nodded, to herself mostly. She really thought they would.  
\---

Viktor woke to a knock on his door in the middle of the night. His first instinct was to look for Maccachin, but found his dog by his side, ears perked up at the noise.

Someone ran into his room and turned on the light by his bed. “It’s here,” said Yuuri. It was taking far too long him to understand what was going on.

Earbuds were placed in his ears and he realized he was listening to a piano. The girl had finished the piece.

After hearing a few bars he met Yuuri’s expectant eyes. He smiled and nodded once.

The piece was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings about Yuri!!! On Ice and the music behind it. I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
